Brand Identity part 2 of 3

 Have you given more thought to your brand and who your trying to reach? Great question right? Hi I'm Jeffrey Bernhard Many companies spend all their time perfecting the product and not the image. Some would argue that perfecting your brand is just as important. Most companies however, wait until the product launches and then they try and figure out what the brand is. Big mistake. Branding is much more intricate than you might think. For example, you have Brand advocates, brand communities, brand equity, brand name imprinting, and brand personality to just name a few. Let's talk about all of these briefly. So first lets talk about brand advocates. Brand advocates are probably exactly what you think they are. These are people who write about your brand online. They click and share just exactly how they use your product, what they like and dislike about it as well. These consumers work for and against you but are extremely valuable to your brand. Brand Communities is next and I like to describe this community by using Jeep as an example. You see, Jeep consumers are hardcore advocates for anything Jeep. You have Jeep clothing, Jeep accessories, Jeep everything really. They are selling a lifestyle, not a product. In fact, Jeep communities get together on the weekends and go off-roading and camping and people get married as a result of driving Jeeps. Crazy you might think, but hardly. Strong branding is the name of the game at Jeep. Every company could take a page out of the branding book at Jeep. Next is brand equity, now brand equity is the positive associations the customers feels as a result of the brand and loyalty that's associated with it. For example, when you think of a motorcycle what comes to mind? Harley Davidson should be the first brand you think of. The customers that ride Harleys buy the Harley jacket, boots, gloves, bumper sticker, t-shirts and it doesn't end there. This has one of the strongest brand equities in possibly the entire world. Very loyal customers, that is unmatched in every other brand of motorcycle. Imagine being at a Christmas party and the guy next to you says he rides and you ask what kind of bike and he says Harley and asks what you ride and you say Suzuki? Suzuki's are great but you get the point. Next is brand name imprinting which is simply linking a brand to a category in memory? For example, Tabasco to hot sauce, or Tropicana to orange juice. Now many scientist argue over the best method for brand imprinting whether it be saying the name several times before they show you the product or afterwards. Brand personality is next and it's a set of traits that people link to a product as if it were a person. A great example would be Apple computer products. Of 20,000 people surveyed they said that Apple users were more likely to be power hungry elitist, well-educated, interested in finance and banking. Wow. I have seen plenty who are just the opposite who use Apple products. I have much more to cover on this topic and it only gets more intriguing as we go along. If you have any questions feel free to leave them on my blog or send them to me on LinkedIn. I would be happy to help, if you need me to help you with your product, reach out to me, I look forward to hearing from you, as always, have a great day!.